Emotional Intelligence

An Introduction

What is Intelligence?

• Typically focused on – analytic reasoning

– verbal skills

– spatial ability

– attention

– memory

– judgement

• Murky concept with definitions by many experts...

One Definition

• Individuals differ from one another in their ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, to overcome obstacles by taking thought… Concepts of intelligence are attempts to clarify and organize this complex set of phenomena.

Neisser et al, 1996.

IQ • A weak predictor for

– achievement

– job performance success

– overall success, wealth, & happiness

• Accounts for a major component of employment success according to numbers of studies covering career success; maybe as much as 20-25%.

More potent predictors of career success were

• Ability to handle frustrations

• manage own emotions

• manage own social skills

How do we view emotions?

•chaotic •haphazard •superfluous •incompatible with reason •disorganized •largely visceral •resulting from the lack of effective adjustment

How do we view emotions?

•Arouse, sustain, direct activity •Part of the total economy of living organisms •Not in opposition to intelligence •Themselves a higher order of intelligence

See the notes pages for more on Phineas Gage

Emotional processing may be an essential part of rational decision making

The main purpose of the innermost part of the brain is survival.

To Get at

Emotion, Go

Deep... Amygdala is deep within the most elemental parts of the brain.

There is a Biological Purpose for Emotion

• Signaling function (that we might take action)

• Promote unique, stereotypical patterns of physiological change

• Provide strong impulse to take action

Basic Emotions--presumed to be hard wired and physiologically distinctive

• Joy

• Surprise

• Sadness

• Anger

• Disgust

• Fear

Evolutionary Advantage to Emotion

• For example: – Fight or flight

response

– but can basic emotions overwhelm rational thinking?

Neurobiology of Rationality

• Damasio’s work shows how neurobiology can help us understand the role of emotion in thinking. We constantly learn more about this important area.

• Work like his underlies the concepts of emotional intelligence.

• There are less obvious advantages to emotional experience.

• Emotion is emerging as an essential contributor to rational decision making.

•“Being nice” •Letting feelings

hang out”

What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)?

The capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.

•a field in infancy

•fast-growing

•aspects harken to research of the 1940’s

The 5 Components of EI

•Emotional Self-Awareness •Managing one’s own emotions

•Using emotions to maximize intellectual processing and decision-making •Developing empathy

•The art of social relationships (managing emotions in others)

Goleman’s Categories Self-Awareness Self-Regulation Self-Motivation Social Awareness Social Skills

Emotional self-awareness

• The inability to notice our true feelings leaves us at their mercy.

• People with greater certainty about their feelings are better pilots of their lives

and have a surer sense about how they feel about personal decisions.

Stay open to our emotional experience--

can we tolerate the entire bouquet?

Self-awareness

Value of taking time for self- awareness requires abilities

• to recognize appropriate body cues and emotions

• to label cues and emotions accurately

• to stay open to unpleasant as well as pleasant emotions

• Includes the capacity for experiencing and recognizing multiple and conflicting emotions

Emotional Self Awareness

Alexithymia; when self awareness

is impoverished. •No words for

emotion •Difficulty in distinguishing

between emotions •Impoverished capacity

for fantasy •Over-concern with physical symptoms

Managing one’s own emotions • EI is like a smoke alarm--we’re not good at

influencing whether a particular emotion will arise. EI tells us something is arising.

• We do have tremendous individual variability in the degree to which we can consciously limit the duration of unpleasant emotions and the degree of influence over the behaviors which may arise.

Self regulation

Out of control emotions

• Impair reasoning (even smart people sometimes act stupidly)

• May increase the likelihood that chronic emotional problems will result, (e.g., clinical depression or chronic anxiety or hostility)

Managing one’s own emotions

Emotional development

• We develop external strategies first

• Then we develop social strategies

• Girls do better at developing strategies overall

The more

strategies

the better

Managing one’s own emotions

Using emotions to maximize intellectual processing and decision

making

• As a person matures, emotions begin to shape and improve thinking by directing a person’s attention to important changes, (e.g., a child worries about his homework while continually watching TV. A teacher becomes concerned about a lesson that needs to be completed for the next day. The teacher moves on to complete the task before concern takes over enjoyment.

Mayer and Salovey, 1995

self motivation

Utilizing mild emotional swings to perform one’s options more effectively

• “Gut feeling” can be used to effectively guide decisions--a neurological understanding of how unconscious and conscious gut feelings guide decisions, e.g., when prioritizing, emotions help move the decisions.

Using emotions to maximize intellectual processing and decision making

• Harness emotions to promote or hinder motivation. (Anxiety, hostility, sadness)

• Emotional swings to increase the accuracy of one’s perspective on future events.

Developing empathy

• Empathy is the ability to recognize another’s emotional state, which is very similar to what you are experiencing.

• In research on married couples, empathy appears to include matching the physiological changes of the other person. social awareness

Developing empathy links to

• Greater emotional stability

• Greater interpersonal sensitivity

• Better school performance

Developing empathy

The art of social relationships--managing emotions in others

• To excel at people skills means having and using the competencies to be an effective friend, negotiator, and leader. One should be able to guide an interaction, inspire others, make others comfortable in social situations, and influence and persuade others.

social skills

The subtle and complex abilities which underlie people skills

• Being attuned to others’ emotions

• Promoting comfort in others through the proper use of display rules

• Using own emotional display to establish a sense of rapport

The art of social relationships--managing emotions in others

The danger of the nice personality

• Have you ever met a nice person, but the “bells have gone off?”

• Charisma draws in but not always to desired ends, e.g., Hitler, Jim Jones.

• Empathy can be faked; so can other emotions.

The art of social relationships--managing emotions in others

The development of EI • A genetic

contribution is likely

• They are not destiny (timidity)

• Early expression of emotion by parents helps learning

• Early abuse hinders learning

• Poor ability to read others’ emotion may lead to the development of poor social skills.

Some Gender Differences • More willing to

compromise social connectedness for independence

• Not as good as women at this

• Less adept than women overall

• More physiologically overwhelmed by marital conflict

• Greater need for connectedness

• Have a wider range of emotions

• Better at reading emotions

• Better at developing social strategies overall

• Perhaps more engaged in marital conflict

Emotion related dysfunction • all or nothing thinking

• overgeneralization

• excessive worrying

• worrying as magical thinking

• disqualifying the position

• jumping to negative conclusions

• “should” statements

• labeling & mislabeling

• personalization

• stonewalling

• criticism; contempt

• Impacts on physical health – cardiovascular disease

– progression of diabetes

– progression of cancer

– onset of hypertension

• Impacts on relationships

• Impacts on mental health

Dysfunction at Work

• Is the person in the wrong job?

• Does the job require the person to be difficult?

• What is remarkable about the group dynamics of the organization?

• What about individuals, personal and interpersonal?

Some Business Examples

• Airlines are similar in price structure. The competitive edge = how well personnel treat passengers

• Others/Yours? – Implementing credit card use

– Getting contractors paid when the system won’t work

– ABC; JLIMS

Importance of EI in Organizations

The higher you go, the more EI matters--the more SOCIAL COMPETENCE matters

• SES ECQ’s – influence, communication, leadership, change catalyst,

conflict management, building bonds, collaboration and cooperation; team capabilities

• Army Values – leadership, duty, respect, selfless service, honor,

integrity, personal courage

Importance of EI to Organizations, too

• 50% of work satisfaction is determined by the relationship a worker has with… his/her boss.

• EI is a prerequisite for effective leadership across borders. – Requires a high level of self-mastery and people

skills; ability to put yourself into the positions of others.

A one-day seminar won’t do it.

Unlearn old

habits

What is Training in EI Worth?

Increases retention. Decreases absenteeism. Increases overall organizational growth.

Could increase production as much as 20%

Current estimates to American Business: Losing between $5.6 and

$16.8 Billion annually

If we knew nothing about a store except that employee attitudes had improved 5%, we could predict that its revenue would rise

.5% above what it otherwise would have been.

--Sears executive, Harvard Business Review, January, 1998

Nine Strategies

for

Taking the time for mindfulness

Recognizing and naming emotions

Understanding the causes of feelings

Differentiating between emotion and the need to take action

Preventing depression through “learned optimism”

Managing anger through learned behavior or distraction techniques

Listening for the lessons of feelings

Using “gut feelings” in decision making

Developing listening skills

Promoting Emotional

Intelligence

There are instruments to measure EI...

• Take time for mindfulness

• Recognize and name emotions

• ID the causes of feelings

• Differentiate having the emotion and doing something about it

• Learn optimism to challenge distortion

• Learn distraction techniques

• Listen to voice of experience

• Develop Listening skills